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ABSTRACT
China’s naval modernisation program has been seen as China’s path toward a blue water naval capacity designed to challenge American global hegemony. While China does reap the benefits of maritime trade, especially along its eastern seaboard, it is also through that eastern seaboard that China is vulnerable to invasion and encirclement. To prevent this encirclement China has built up its navy, including its anti-access and area denial capabilities, as well as adding two aircraft carriers to its surface fleet. The PLAN’s modernisation effort, therefore, is defensive in nature, and not an attempt by China to build a blue water naval capacity to challenge directly the United States, or its allies.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributor
James MacHaffie is a doctoral student at the University of Leicester.
Notes
1 See for instance, Pritchard (Citation1995).
2 For an overview of the development of the Royal Navy see: Palmer (Citation2005)
3 International Chamber of Shipping, Key Facts, Accessed 8 July 2019. http://www.ics-shipping.org/shipping-facts/shipping-and-world-trade
4 ‘Top 50 World Container Ports.’ World Shipping.org Accessed 13 December 2019. http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/top-50-world-container-ports/
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Top Twenty Exporters of Containerized Cargo-2010, 2013 & 2014, Accessed 13 December 2019. http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/trade-statistics
8 This includes ships registered under flags of convenience with other states. ‘Merchant Fleets’, UNCTAD Handbook of E-statistics, Accessed 13 December 2019. https://stats.unctad.org/handbook/MaritimeTransport/MerchantFleet.html
9 Ibid.
10 NSC 5429/5 (Citation1954), https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v12p1/d428 and Choi (Citation2012, 133)
11 China’s grand strategy is focused around security, especially security on the periphery where China is most vulnerable. Swaine and Tellis (Citation2000, 39–44)
12 ‘China's Maritime Ambitions Impact India’, The Sunday Guardian (India), 3 January 2015, and Ankit Panda, ‘China Has Constructed Six Ballistic Missile Submarines’, The Diplomat, 8 May 2019, Accessed 20 December 2019. https://thediplomat.com/2019/05/china-has-constructed-six-ballistic-missile-submarines/
13 ‘China's J-20, J-30 likely to be deployed on aircraft carriers, military expert says’. People’s Daily, 4 March 2016
14 In 1999, the PLA designated five of its universities to be comprehensive universities, dedicated solely to the education and training of PLA officers, with an emphasis on technology. Ibid, 31. See also: Heginbotham (Citation2015, 198–222)
15 Included in China’s A2/AD is the upgrade in submarine technology, as well as anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) from land. Lim (Citation2017), 152–162
16 For a more detailed explanation for why China lags behind the US in some areas see: Gilli and Gilli (Citation2018/19)
17 ‘Chinese Aircraft Carrier Returns after First Sea Trials’, Zhongguo Xinwen She, 14 August 2011.
18 ‘Xi Attends Commissioning of First Chinese-built Aircraft Carrier’, People’s Daily, 19 December 2019
19 The UK and Italy have plans to add an additional carrier to their fleets. Thomas (Citation2019).
20 Carriers are used as geopolitical chess pieces as one author put as one of the uses of aircraft carriers by US presidents, in addition to being capital ships. Rubel (Citation2011, 17–18).
21 More accurately, the tribute system would bring stability rather than complete equilibrium. Even still, a modern tribute system would be seen by China at least, as mutually beneficial, hence equilibrium. See: Harding (Citation2009, 128), and Womack (Citation2010, 164–166).
22 ‘China requires at least three aircraft carriers – general’, DefenceWeb, 1 August 2011. Accessed 14 January 2020. https://www.defenceweb.co.za/sea/sea-sea/china-requires-at-least-three-aircraft-carriers-general/
23 ‘China’s Defense Minister Calls for Strengthened Coastal Defense’, China Daily, 19 July 2015.
24 Brookes (Citation2009, 8) and ‘Report: China Cold be Aiming to Project Power Farther in the Pacific’, Inside the Navy, 30 March 2009
25 ‘Japan versus China in the South China Sea’, Nikkei Asian Review, 11 October 2018.
26 For an alternative strategy to Mahan’s for Chinese sea power see: Kong (Citation2017).
27 Such as Montgomery (Citation2014, 115–149), and Brooks (Citation2013).